Volkswagen’s 1.4 TSI Twincharger wins 2009 International Engine of the Year Awards!

The results for the 2009 International Engine of the Year Awards have been released, and the grand overall winner is the 1.4 litre TSI Twincharger engine from Volkswagen, ending for the first time in 4 years BMW’s dominance over the awards.

Quite interestingly out of the 8 entries for the title, 6 and a half are German engines, with the remaining one being the 1.0 litre in the Aygo and the “half” being PSA’s share in the BMW Prince engine, which managed 7th place with 107 points. Check out the videos in this post which talk about the winning engines.

The 1.4 litre TSI engine also won the Green Engine of the Year award, and the displacement-based 1.0 to 1.4 litre Engine award.

The following are the rest of the results:

Best New Engine of the Year

The best new engine of the year is the new Porsche flat-6, which gets the direct fuel injection system previously offered on the Cayenne SUV. The advanced engine also features Variocam Plus variable valve timing, hydraulic valve play compensation, and integrated dry sump lubrication with an on demand oil pump, and it has its compression increased to 12.5:1 thanks to the new flexibility in combustion management that direct injection provides.

Pretty much every alternative for the regular normally aspirated combustion engine has representatives in this list, but it was a downsized displacement turbocharged gasoline engine that took the lead, beating the IMA Hybrid from the Civic and Insight by only 2 points. Diesel engines from Mercedes-Benz and BMW are also on the list, along with a Ford hybrid engine that’s last place with a large gap of over 30 points before the 2.1 litre OM651 in 5th place. As you already know, the 1.4 litre TSI that wins in this category also won engine of the year.

The 6.2 litre V8 from the “63 AMG” cars top the best performance engine list, beating BMW’s high revving V8 and V10 engines. Just don’t ask me why cars with a 63 badge on the rear have a 6.2 litre engine instead of a 6.3 litre engine. This V8 produces various outputs ranging from 451 horses up to 518 horses on the CL63 AMG. One technician assembles the whole engine from start until the end.

Just look at the gap between the first and second place in the category – a whopping 102 points. The 67kg 993cc Toyota engine has been winning since 2007, ever since taking the throne from the previous gen Insight’s winning 1.0 litre IMA engine back in 2006.

Here we meet the grand winner again. Notice the top two spots are taken by 1.4 litre TSI engines – the second place winner is a single turbocharged version of the engine that’s meant to produce power outputs that equal a 2.0 litre normally aspirated engine.

The winner of this category can be found in various cars offered here in Malaysia, even in a car costing under RM120k. Yes, the BMW-PSA 1.6 litre turbo engine with direct injection and a twin scroll turbocharger is found in the Peugeot 308 Turbo. It’s also found in the Cooper S and Clubman S.

There are two Audi engines in this list – one is the older unit and the winning engine is the new EA888 direct injection turbo engine. The A4 2.0 TFSI should be coming here soon to join its 1.8 litre sibling, and this award winning engine will be found in it. It’s going to be a fun car for sure, thanks to 350Nm of torque from just 1,500rpm. Two balancer shafts rotating with twice the speed of the crankshaft in the crankcase helps compensate for second-order inertial forces and leading to refined running with very low vibrations. Valvelift technology also variably manages the exhaust valves.

The new OM651 wins the 2.0 to 2.5 litre engine category, using sequential twin turbochargers to boost power up to a peak 201 horses. This same engine family also features single variable geometry turbocharger versions. Audi’s 2.5 litre inline-5 turbo is also new, and notice the number 5 spot – that’s a normally aspirated direct injection BMW engine that’s not installed in the cars here. The N53 family doesn’t really like our petrol quality and we continue to get the sweeter-sounding N52 (the N53 is slightly clattery) in our cars, including the newly launched Z4.

BMW’s N54 twin turbo petrol engine is found in various BMWs sold here in Malaysia – the 135i, 335i, Z4 sDrive35i, BMW 740Li and the BMW X6 xDrive35i. This baby currently puts out just over 300 horsepower and 400Nm of torque, but a newer BMW engine called the N56 has just been introduced and can make the same kind of power with only a single twin-scroll turbocharger, no two smaller turbos in parallel needed. It also adds Valvetronic, something not seen before on BMW turbo engines, including the BMW-PSA inline-4. We’ll see how the N56 single turbo Valvetronic engine does in next year’s awards.

According to the judges votes, the screaming 4.0 litre V8 in the current generation M3 beats every other competitor in this category flat, including the 3.8 litre twin turbo V6 in the new Nissan GT-R. It’s also probably going to be the only V8 ever to be slotted in a mass market M3, with the next generation said to return to inline-6 power, with the help of forced induction. In classic M style, each cylinder is fed via its own throttle butterfly, and the engine revs up beyond 8,000rpm, producing a peak of 414hp at 8,250rpm.

The best performance engine is also the best engine with displacement above 4.0 litres. Normally aspirated engines beat force inducted ones in this list in terms of points – it looks like for really fast cars the judges prefer the rawness of a normally aspirated unit. In last place is the odd one out – a hybrid engine found in the Lexus LS600h.

After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.

GERMAN ENGINEERING is the best in engine making! German dominated the Best International engine award again…

AUDI, BMW, PORSCHE, VOLKSWAGEN, MERCEDES.. all is german engineering..

I think PROTON and PERODUA need to consider compete with the Germans high quality cars especially the sports car in their 24 hours Nurburgring championship in Germany or at least compete in World Rally Championship (WRC) in Germany… Germany is the best place to study engineering stuff, Malaysia need to consider to send our brightest student in engineering to Germany! at least student exchange with the Germany University will improve alot of Malaysia automotive industry

PETRONAS is official premium partner with BMW Germany, I think if Malaysia want to improve Malaysia automotive engineering with the German, it should be not so much difficult. Malaysia must set a clear long term goal to get a full access to the best of german engineering! Jean Todt (F1 FERRARI boss), he is Michelle Yeoh hubby said he want to cooperate with Malaysia.. we can get the best of german and italian engineering technology if we work hard for it.

Germany is #1 the best for engineering study especially all about automotive and mechanical engineering.

did PROTON and PERODUA know that the 27th Prime Minister of Turkey name Necmettin Erbakan (study in Germany in RWTH Aachen University, Germany) is the chief of once best #1 tank in the world, the German Leopard tank..

MALAYSIA NEED GERMAN ENGINEERING TO SURVIVE IN THE FUTURE, Germans are the real master in engineering.. at least compete in Nurburgring 24 hours race in Germany, mess with the best.. shoot for the moon, even if you miss it you still can be among the stars..

there is no doubt GERMAN ENGINEERING is the best in this world, even World Best Tank LEOPARD also was made in Germany (the first idea is from Necmettin Erbakan, the 27th Prime Minister of Turkey which study the engineering in RWTH Aachen University, Germany then German made him the chief of the first project of LEOPARD tank)

Volkswagen can get so much benefit if they partner with PROTON because they can enter South-East Asia more convenient.. but PROTON must convince them la, can sell more cars in South-East Asia.. rugi only, who want to believe? that's why la VW said they want to take control of the management to correct the things first

actually in year 2004, Volkswagen which have share in AUDI, PORSCHE, BUGATTI VEYRON agree to produce cars with PROTON, but later think again la, who want to rugi right?

PROTON.. go back to Volkswagen, get the best GERMAN ENGINEERING.. convince the Volkswagen that PROTON sell like hot pisang goreng in all over ASEAN to convince the germans. GERMAN ENGINEERING, MALAYSIA REALLY NEED IT! every year German win the world best engine, either it from BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Volkswagen.. there is no doubt GERMAN ENGINEERING is the best in this world!

Germans always have great engines. Just go through their history and you'll see it.

Japanese might sell more cars, but they sell them cheap. This means Japs have to sell many cars to make profit. German can easily make more profit out of each car they sell.

One of the problems with Japs and others is that they primarily copy technologies of others to sell them cheap. If you can only copy others, you're not thinking for yourself and you'll never be on top.

Germans always have great engines. Just go through their history and you’ll see it.

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it is true, German is the best in the field of engineering.. Japan have a good strategy of marketing and the a very high spirit.. if MALAYSIA have all this good values we can defeat them, Malaysia automotive industry need to look for the bright future, MALAYSIA NEED GERMAN ENGINEERING and the spirit of the Japanese.

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